Yesterday, Tower Investments filed a motion to dismiss the Nashville-chartered Metropolitan Housing and Development Agency’s Petition for Condemnation of the company’s 5.6-acre downtown property. MHDA is attempting to clear land for the proposed Music City Convention Center, the construction of which is currently projected to cost nearly $600 million.

What makes this case particularly interesting is that Tower doesn’t oppose the development plan per se; rather, it wants to build a hotel “in such a way that enhances and accommodates the convention center.”…

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Yesterday, Pfizer announced it was closing its research and development facility in New London, Connecticut. This is the same complex that was at the center of the redevelopment plan at issue in Kelo v. New London. From the Castle Coalition:

This was the same bogus development plan that five justices of the U.S. Supreme Court refused to question when the property owners of New London pleaded to have their homes spared from the wrecking ball.  Justices mentioned that there was a plan…

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I’ll admit it: William Greider is an easy target. The former Rolling Stone reporter and current national affairs correspondent at The Nation has a habit of making a fool out of himself, to the delight of the right and to the chagrin of the brighter segments of the left. Left-wing economist Paul Krugman, reviewing his 1997 anti-globalization book One World, Ready or Not, said that “the main lesson one really learns from [Greider's book] is how easy it is for an intelligent,…

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Popular outrage over eminent domain abuse may have waned a bit since the Supreme Court’s poorly-reasoned Kelo ruling in 2005, but economic development takings remain incredibly unpopular throughout the country. Public opinion polls indicate that more than 80 percent of Americans oppose eminent domain for economic development, which is surprising when one considers the relative inaction on the part of state legislatures to meaningfully protect their citizens’ property rights.

However, there are reasons to be optimistic. Brooklynites fighting the proposed Atlantic Yards development…

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Yesterday, U.S. District Court Judge Frederick Scullin dismissed the majority of a lawsuit filed by J.C. Penney against the owner of the mall where it leases retail space.  The Carousel Center, located in Syracuse, New York, is currently undergoing a [doomed] expansion project–the largest commercial development to break ground in Syracuse in 20 years. The project is in part bolstered by public support in the form of generous tax breaks and ridiculous green giveaways (the planned hotel will be “powered by rainwater,…

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Journalists have a tendency to present overly-simple explanations of current events that often turn out to be completely false as well. Part of this is due to journalists trying to present a clear, digestible story to readers, and part is due to the fact that most of them have no formal training or particular expertise on the subjects they write about. Case in point is Barry C. Lynn’s latest piece in The American Prospect, which alleges that concentration of the auto…

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The multi-billion dollar Atlantic Yards development project in Brooklyn, New York–subsidized to the tune of $1.6 billion by New York taxpayers–is facing new scrutiny after politically-connected developer Bruce Ratner’s ties with embattled left-wing activist group ACORN were revealed. As it currently stands, the public-financed redevelopment plan relies on extensive use of eminent domain that would leave many long-time residents and business owners out in the cold. But ACORN, as one would expect, is framing the debate in racial terms:

ACORN’s New York director, Bertha…

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In a blog post at Rolling Stone, Journalist In Name Only Matt Taibbi accuses the media of “help[ing] sandbag health care reform.” In the rambling, incoherent post, Taibbi goes on to complain about his current private insurance plan and how he “can’t have the pleasure of a routine proctological exam unless I want to pay cash for it.” Given his profanity-laced description (which I won’t re-post here), it appears he has some sort of high-deductible plan.

Many on the left are critical…

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In this morning’s Washington Post, columnist George Will brings to light a particularly egregious example of politically-connected developers abusing the legal system to silence their land-grab critics:

When Kelo was decided, H. Walker Royall, a Dallas developer, already had designs on some property that for more than a decade has belonged to the Gore family shrimping business in coastal Freeport. In 2003, Royall signed an agreement with that city’s government to build a yacht marina, hotel and condominiums using property the city…

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CEI Editorial Director Ivan Osorio discussed the true economic costs of the Obama administration’s “Cash for Clunkers” program, calling it “a costly boondoggle that will yield little net benefit.” It is pretty clear that Cash for Clunkers will prove harmful to the long-run economy, but what about the program’s other purported purpose–reducing CO2 emissions? Below are a couple of interesting quotes.

President Barack Obama, July 31, 2009:

The [Cash for Clunkers] program has proven to be a successful part of our economic recovery…

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Yesterday, the Obama administration distanced itself from some of the more outrageous comments made by congressional Democrats, including one made by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) which labeled some critics of a government takeover of health care as “simply un-American.” Speaker Pelosi was specifically referring to those opponents who have been attending health care congressional town hall meetings, claiming that “disruptive” actions are perverting our democratic system and preventing a real dialogue between Congress and constituents.

CEI Fellow in Regulatory Studies Ryan…

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So says British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell. At a meeting of Canada’s provincial premiers held in Regina, Saskatchewan, last week, slapping retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods was barely averted.

Harper and his Trade Minister Stockwell Day scored an important victory Friday when provincial premiers finally agreed not to retaliate. “We’ve made it clear we won’t ask the U.S. for anything we are not willing to give the U.S.,” said British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell, who attended a meeting of premiers held in…

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Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB), a group opposed to the taxpayer-financed development project Atlantic Yards, filed a motion with the New York Court of Appeals alleging that the environmental impact statement authored by the Empire State Development Corporation was illegally biased and predetermined in a manner that favors the property developer.

Specifically, according to DDDB, the latest brief filed in the case that challenges the environmental review asks the Court of Appeals to hear its case and address the following:

“1. Whether ESDC’s…

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As described in an OpenMarket post by CEI’s Ivan Osorio a couple weeks ago, the Teamsters union and UPS are currently lobbying Congress to change FedEx’s labor law status, thereby making it easier for the Teamsters to organize FedEx drivers.

Today, the Washington Times ran an article on the ongoing battle, which included a you-can’t-make-this-up quote from Teamsters boss James P. Hoffa:

FedEx has built much of its empire on low-cost business models and other unsavory tactics, some of which are now coming back to…

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Today—July 20, 2009—marks the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. The mission represents a significant milestone in human achievement and was watched live on television by millions of people around the world—another significant milestone. In the current pessimistic climate—where politicians and doomsaying demagogues regularly denigrate the power of human creativity—it is important to take stock of how far we have come in terms of social institutions, living standards, technology, and scientific understanding. If you’re looking to jog your…

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I am slowly being convinced that Obama’s so-called “stimulus” plan is really just a piece of neo-Dadaist performance art. Today’s evidence supporting my theory comes from The Morning Call in Allentown, PA:

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is spending $60,000 of its stimulus money on $2,000 road signs to highlight projects funded by the massive economic recovery package.

The large green signs mark about 30 of what PennDOT calls ”higher visibility projects” statewide. Each denotes the project is funded by the American Recovery and…

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Last week, Michelle Malkin posted on the disturbing past of Obama’s Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Co-Chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology–more popularly known as the “science czar”–John Holdren. The page Malkin links to containing  scans of a past publication is offline as of this writing, but I’ll re-post an excerpt from her site below:

In a book Holdren co-authored in 1977, the…

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While the public outrage over eminent domain abuse following the 2005 Kelo ruling has waned to some degree, the controversy surrounding private property takings for purposes of “economic redevelopment” still burns in many municipalities across the country. Now a new documentary, titled Greetings from Asbury Park (yes, like the Springsteen record–he is listed among the film’s supporters), seeks to bring national attention to the plight of one elderly woman fighting to keep the home she has lived in for two generations.

“Greetings from Asbury…

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The Washington Times ran a great editorial this morning regarding the majority of Congress’s continued refusal to actually read the bills before voting on them.

No simpler requirement for good government could be imagined. When what is at stake is a revolutionary change in the entire organization of 17 percent of the economy - not to mention the delivery of services that could mean the difference between life and death for millions of Americans each year - it is basic common sense to…

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A few weeks ago, I wrote about the new passport requirements implemented at the U.S.-Canada border. As I noted at the time, most Americans–including two former presidents–were unaware of this change in policy, which will increase the travel costs by $500 for the average American family.

Now the Obama administration is imposing new restrictions on civilian aviation, requiring private pilots to reveal detailed personal information about their passengers and to seek government permission to leave the country, a first in American history.…

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